Are LED Whip Antennas Legal?
Discussion
I have a pretty low car (VX220) which has been further lowered from stock. One of the main ways out of my home village involves quite a severe hump-back bridge which is difficult to see over. I am thinking of adding an LED whip antenna (similar to those put on dune buggies) in place of my OEM one. What are the MOT / legal implications of this? Is it legal? Should it be red or white the whole way round? Or would it need to be white from the front and red from the back using two separate strips of LEDs? Cheers all.
IAmTupperware said:
I have a pretty low car (VX220) which has been further lowered from stock. One of the main ways out of my home village involves quite a severe hump-back bridge which is difficult to see over. I am thinking of adding an LED whip antenna (similar to those put on dune buggies) in place of my OEM one. What are the MOT / legal implications of this? Is it legal? Should it be red or white the whole way round? Or would it need to be white from the front and red from the back using two separate strips of LEDs? Cheers all.
LED whips are cool. I really want something like an Ariel Nomad fitted with twin LED whips 
That aside, my understanding is that you must not show red to the front of the vehicle, nor must you show white to the rear. The regulations actually state that:-
- no vehicle should be fitted with a lamp capable of showing a red light to the front (apart from a couple of exceptions); and
- no vehicle shall be fitted with a lamp capable of showing any light other than red to the rear (again subject to some exceptions).
So viewing it from the front is fine, it can be basically be any colour you want other than red (which is why trucks have all sorts of colours of lights to the front) but your issue is going to be from the rear, as the rear must be red only, and you can't have a red whip because you would see it from the front....
In an ideal world, you could get one that was red for the rear and white or another colour for the front.
Your other option is to go for amber and hope to use the defence that it is simply an amber warning beacon... but that wouldn't be strictly acceptable as they are supposed to flash.
Failing all that, start selling your own red/white LED whips for use on pickups, buggies, quads, tractors and other UK road legal vehicles
JapanRed said:
Drive faster over the bridge and if something happens to be approaching from the other direction you will simply jump right over it.
Years ago when we were all silly teenagers, a friend of mine had a Capri, and he used to jump it over a hump back bridge near his house for a laugh. One day there was 3 of us in the car, and the other passenger said to him "Bet you can't get all 4 wheels off the ground with us three in the car" he just laughed and absolutely redlined it through second and into third, hit the bridge, and I kid you not, if there has been something coming the other way we would have cleared it.The bang when the car landed was massive. We had a look underneath later and the floor pan and exhaust was all gouged and flattened
Chester draws said:
If the difficulty is seeing over the bridge, from a low car...
Surely the answer is...
I was thinking more about surgery - Surely the answer is...
Lord Marylebone said:
In an ideal world, you could get one that was red for the rear and white or another colour for the front.
My thought is to try and make one with a strip of white and a strip of red LEDs and a long piece of clear shrink wrap. The only problem would be making sure that you can only see white from the front and red from the back. Maybe something to block the light either side. Might have a think... eccles said:
I used to drive a very low car with an old fashioned chrome aerial. I got out trimmers the make a little dayglo pennant for the top of the aerial.
Used to help being seen in these situation and others like roundabout and supermarket car parks.
I definitely thinks it's worth doing something. Especially as it is my daily and the lights themselves aren't great. Used to help being seen in these situation and others like roundabout and supermarket car parks.
Riley Blue said:
I can't advise you about LED whips but in such circumstances I use my car's horn to let other road users know I'm approaching unseen. Wouldn't it be easier to do the same?
Only really works if the other car doesn't have the radio on or has the windows down. There's a blind summit on a single track road not too far from me. I've lost count of the amount of times two cars have approached from both directions, both beeping their horns and had a head on bump.
Beeping, in this case, only annoys the residents who live alongside the road.
Additional lights on cars was a big discussion many years ago with the Halfords add-on tat brigade. It came out that basically additional lights on cars are legal, so long as they don't show red to the front or any colour except red to the rear, and that they don't move (eg. any lights on a windscreen wiper are illegal, blue lights on the washer jets are legal). If the antenna shows white to the front and red to the rear it should be ok I think?
What effect are you expecting the LEDs to have on oncoming traffic? In my experience cars only stop because they think they’ve seen something they will crash into, like an oncoming car. Something pretty like a disembodied light floating in the sky might make them look up and say “ah”, but are you going to bet your car on it making them slow down or stop?
How does it work during the daytime? It’s going to need to be a pretty powerful light...
How does it work during the daytime? It’s going to need to be a pretty powerful light...
MrTrilby said:
What effect are you expecting the LEDs to have on oncoming traffic? In my experience cars only stop because they think they’ve seen something they will crash into, like an oncoming car. Something pretty like a disembodied light floating in the sky might make them look up and say “ah”, but are you going to bet your car on it making them slow down or stop?
How does it work during the daytime? It’s going to need to be a pretty powerful light...
Maybe he only takes it out at night, to help hide how embarrassing his car looks.How does it work during the daytime? It’s going to need to be a pretty powerful light...
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